


The Most Important Thing

by Josh89



Series: Time [9]
Category: Castle (TV 2009)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, F/M, Fluff, Kate tells the truth, Romantic Fluff, Secrets, Truth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21545641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh89/pseuds/Josh89
Summary: Castle and Beckett cuddle, talk some more, and Kate tells him a couple more of her secrets.
Relationships: Kate Beckett/Richard Castle
Series: Time [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1275392
Kudos: 7





	The Most Important Thing

Kate woke to the gentle sound of seagulls crying above the ocean and the hiss of the waves as they broke apart on the sand not far from where she and her fiancé were currently laying. She shifted slightly, easing slightly cramped muscles, and causing the writer who she was currently curled against to look down at her. “Everything okay, Kate?”  
She smiled up at him, raising herself just enough to press a light kiss to his lips, and nuzzled her face into his neck, inhaling the smell of the cologne he wore. “Everything’s perfect. My legs were just starting to get cramped from lying still, that’s all. How long was I asleep for?”  
Her fiancé considered the question. “Forty-five minutes. Which would make the current time two-thirty in the afternoon”.  
She sat up, leaning into his side. His right arm slipped around her shoulders, pulling her gently towards him, and she smiled in satisfaction, giving a soft sigh as his fingers fell to rest on the slight swell of her stomach. “So, where’s Alexis?” she queried, her voice gentle.  
Before the writer had a chance to answer, there was a soft splashing sound from the pool behind them, followed closely by the sound of Alexis’s laughter. Rick smiled, gesturing over his shoulder, in the direction of the sound. “Does that answer your question?”  
“It definitely does”.  
She sighed happily again. “It’s funny. Before I met you, I never really thought I was the kind of person to fall in love with anyone. After my mother’s death, I put aside all thought of ever having a family. Especially after I became a cop. We see first-hand how terrible the world can be, Rick. Every day. We see the worst parts of humanity, and for as long as I could I deliberately tried to avoid dating anyone because I couldn’t imagine letting myself fall in love. I guess I decided that I couldn’t risk falling in love with someone because of how dangerous my job was, because I put myself at risk every single fucking day to make the city a little safer and there was always the risk that something would happen and I would die and leave them broken-hearted just like my mother’s death did to my dad. I guess Will… well, Will was the exception. Or at least he was at the time”.  
Rick brushed a strand of his fiancée’s hair from her eye with a couple of fingers and placed a gentle kiss to her forehead, giving her an encouraging smile. “I’m listening”.  
Kate laughed gently. “I know. You always listen, Rick. Well, most of the time, at least. Anyway, meeting you brought light and joy back into my life again. Though I will admit that I hated working with you so very badly at first that I couldn’t see how you actually made my job so much less horrible, over time that changed. I had to take care of both my dad and me after my mom died, Rick, and it wasn’t easy. Especially considering how drunk he tended to get. You make my life easier and more fun every single day. You made me want to believe in love again, to want an actual family, and to finally actually take some time off work willingly rather than being forced to take it. You just… you make me happy, babe. And I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to thank you enough for that, but I’m going to do my best to try”.  
“Why did that sound like you were rehearsing your vows?”  
Kate laughed gently. “I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. But you’re absolutely right, that’s definitely what it came out sounding like”.  
She shifted slightly to make herself more comfortable. “Actually, since we agreed to be totally honest with each other, there’s a couple of things that I never thought I’d actually want to tell you that I probably should. And I just need you not to say anything until I’ve done because I don’t know if I’ll be able to find the courage to say these things again no matter how much I want to”.  
At the writer’s nod, she continued. “Firstly… I know I’ve told you before that your books were important to me, and you’ve known that I’m a fan of your books ever since our first case together, but what you don’t know is exactly how important your books are to me. Your books helped me out so much after my mother’s death. She was a huge fan of your work as well (and yes, I know I mentioned this while we were at her grave before coming up here) and the first copies of your books that I ever read were the ones in her collection. It just felt kind of like there was a part of her in those books that she loved so much, and I was reconnecting with that part of her by reading them. The heroes in your books always solve the day, Rick. They always save the day and get justice for the victims and I couldn’t get that satisfaction for my own mother so I took what I could from your writing”.  
She paused to think about what she was going to say next, brushing a couple of tears out of her eyes with one finger, and Rick cupped her face gently, wiping her eyes clear with his hand before giving her a quick kiss. She smiled gratefully at him as he pulled away, nodding at her to continue. “And secondly… I was going to come up here with you. That summer, the one after we solved the spy game murder. I canceled my plans and broke up with Demming because I was going to accept your invitation. I wanted to come up here with you, tell you how I felt, and spend the weekend with you. And then Gina showed up, you walked out of the Precinct with her beside you and I couldn’t help but feel like it should have been me going with you. And I had no idea whether you were even coming back or not”.  
“I guess we both made mistakes related to summer” the writer observed.  
She nodded, remembering the way she herself acted when she fled the city for three months at her dad’s cabin after being shot in the chest. “You’re absolutely right. We have both made mistakes. And if I could go back in time, I would have never hurt you the way I did by not calling you the summer after I got shot”.  
“And I would have never invited Gina to go up to the Hamptons with me. But we can’t dwell on the past, no matter how enticing it may be. We have the rest of our lives to spend time with each other and with our families, and that’s the most important thing” Rick said softly, smiling down at the detective next to him.  
Kate nodded, leaning in for a kiss. “You’re absolutely right”.


End file.
